Plaid Might Be Next

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 5; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

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At the Raleigh Pen Show last June, the Saturday night auction featured a better than average selection of pencils, from the estate of the late Frank Tedesco, including these jaw-droppers:

These are early Esterbrook pencils - those with plain silver barrels were cataloged as the “PS” pencils, for “Push Sterling.”  One of these two is sterling, with a nice crisp imprint – unusual since they were stamped right where they were likely to wear off from the friction of the cap:

The other is gold filled – not cataloged and exceedingly rare.  There’s some pitting in the finish and the imprint isn’t as nice, but you won’t hear me complain:

What places these two just a bit farther to the left of “holy cow” in terms of rarity are the longitudinal lines running the lengths of the barrels and up the caps.  They nicely complement the ringed pair that I picked up from Jim Ryan’s family at the Ohio Show last November (see page 213):

All together, they make for a stunning new family portrait: